How does drop pod armies deal with titans???

[Onemeanduck]

So I am making an iron hands drop pod army, provably Clan Raukeen codex but we will see.... My plan is 5-7 drop pods with an ironclad or 2, sternies, and the rest with marines. Add a thunder hammer chapter master on a bike with a sways of bikers, and possibly some terminators or something for taste... My question is how do I approach that army with an allied knight Titan???

It's starting to be common for everyone to bring a single knight Titan Allie for ultility, hell even my daemon factory army has one now just to combat other titans.... Would a deck lascabnon squad be worth it to assist my meltas? Predicted annihilator? I suppose the ironclads can sacrifice themselfs to get the last few glances to glance one out maybe....

[Harley]

A drop pod full of Sternguard Vets with Melta and Combi Melta can make quick work of an Imperial Knight. That's 5 Melta shots in 1 turn for 205 points. Pretty decent really. Of course against a 700 point Titan it's going to take a few of these.

Ironclads are not the best dedicated anti-armor units. They get just one shot with a Multi-Melta. If that shot fails they are wasted points. For the same point cost, Sternguard get more Melta shots and have the option to upgrade for even more Melta shots.

Lascannons are not reliable against high armor values. They are better purposed against Terminators, low-mid armor and IC/MCs. Personally I'm of the mindset that Lascannons are not worth taking unless supplemented by some ability such as Ignores Cover or at least Twinlinked. Meltaguns, Lances and Fusion guns all out perform Lascannons against high AV.

[Gryphon]

Harley is quite right. Enough melta shots from sternguard will do the trick.

[Kargarok]

Yup drop pods are one of the best ways to deploy meltaguns where you need them. ^_^

[Wanchango]

Drop pods can work well against a knight but you will need more than 5 melta shots if you hope to kill it in one go. The vets will need to roll, 3+, 4+, 4+ just to have a chance of being effective and you still have a 4+ save against them. Also if you don't manage to kill it the turn you drop you are toast on their turn.

I guess really I would go against the grain and suggest that a unit of lascannons are actually decent against knights just for the fact that they are constantly a threat to the knight and it will make it harder for them to take full advantage of their shields. If you are playing it right your pods will be dropping in a different arc than what you lascannons are in so it just adds versatility. Not to mention they can sit around for backfield scoring.

[Straight JaKeT]

I agree...but why not stuff 10 in there? 10 combi meltas are pricy 335? But still half the cost of the knight. Or a suicide command squad with just 5 melta guns and 5 melta bombs. 205...

[DWest]

IA 2 also has the Relic Sicaran, which (while a pricy model) is both visually excellent and also a great answer to a lot of problems. 175 gets you a Fast vehicle with 6 twin-linked S7 AP4 Rending shots* and 2 Lascannons besides.

*these also ignore Jink at all times, meaning the Sicko has a good chance of knocking down enemy flyers, or blasting bikes to bits.

[Anggul]

Can the ion shield protect the rear armour? If so it would be good to drop one squad by the side of it and one behind. That way they can only shield against half of your shots, not all of them. If it can't be used on the rear armour, go for the butt I guess.

[DWest]

The Errant and Paladin (i.e. the standard plastic kit) can direct their Ion shield to any arc. The Lancer (huge FW one) physically wears its shield on the arm, and cannot bring it around to the back arc. If you're running a full 10-man Sternguard squad, try to drop the pod on the corner between the side and the rear and then combat squad when you disembark, putting one real melta (if you bought full meltaguns and not just combi's) in each half, and use the 6" disembark to get fully in the side arc for one team, back for the other. This way, also, if the Knight lives, you'll only lose half your Sternguard at worst to its counterattack.

Also remember not to get *too* close, as since it's a Superheavy, the Knight does the 10" explosion upon death. The blast is centered on the Knight then scattered 2d6", then a d6 determines the strength of the blast from a table; the inner 5" ring is always D, and on a 2+ the 7" ring has AP 3.

[Thornblood]

I think a key point is to make the enemy think your bikers are the big threat. The jink save will save them from alot of that Titan firepower, something the sternguard cant. Personally I would rather take two units of vets than one big unit, so that the titan cant wipe them all out in one turn.

Legion of the damned can help. 3+ invulnerable save, and you can give em a combi melta, melta and multu melta which ignore cover. They are still vulnerable to massed firepower though. And relentless so move and shoot multi-melta after its deep-struck in.

The humble landspeeder can be toting a multi-melta and be overlooked, gain jink and speed around the board at breakneck speed to contest objectives.

The command squad with meltas in a pod is a good move. If theres an apothecary in too it can help for staying alive (not from the titan so much, but the rest of the army...)